Your Questions Answered | How Are You Managing Communication?
Each month, the Catalyst will feature a question posed to our panel of SRAI Distinguished Faculty members to get their take on all sorts of topics encompassing research administration. Do you have a research administration question for our experts? Send your questions to catalyst@srainternational.org!
This month, we asked our experts: How are you managing communication within your unit during busy times?
Domenica G. Pappas, CRA, Associate Vice Provost for Research, Office of Research, Illinois Tech, SRAI Distinguished Faculty
We all use the technology we can, but sometimes it gets overwhelming. While I talk to most of the members on my team daily, I still have short, weekly meetings to allow us to come together. When things get overwhelming for individuals, I tell them to just give me a call. Sometimes just an “old fashioned” phone call works.
Sandra M. Nordahl, CRA, Director, Sr. Contracting and Compliance and Facility Security Officer, San Diego State University Research Foundation, SRAI Distinguished Faculty
The balancing act is important when communicating with groups. We currently meet as a team every other week. I have an agenda (but not always). I leave time on the agenda for each person on the team to give an update, ask questions, etc. I don’t want to gather people together too often, because they may feel that time is being wasted. When there is something important, I will have a quick pop up meeting. For example, last week on our weekly in-office anchor day with the team, I wanted to give a safety talk and held a pop-up meeting. Honestly, the pop-up meetings are more impactive as they are focused on a topic and short, but allow for input from the team as well.
Jason Guilbeault, MBA, CRA, Associate Vice President for Sponsored Programs Administration, Executive Director for Augusta University Research Institute, Augusta University, SRAI Distinguished Faculty
I think it’s easy to get lost in completing tasks when you’re busy and communicating only on the tasks at hand in that moment. I have regularly scheduled meetings with different groups to ensure that I communicate more global messages. I do a monthly virtual meeting with all our department administrators to provide regulatory updates or provide training on a topic that they seem to be struggling with. I do weekly meetings with the four directors I oversee so we can discuss any issues as a group. For process improvement projects, I meet with the appropriate team weekly for status updates and actions required. Meetings don’t have to be long, they can be as little as 15 minutes, but having a touch-base meeting once a week to keep everything on track is very helpful.
Authored by SRAI
#December2023